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A letter from Marc Whitten (upcoming features and more!)
Marc asked me to share the following letter with you. Some great news for Xbox 360 owners!
Dear Xbox LIVE Members,
I'm really excited about what we unveiled today at E3 and I hope you are also. We announced things that you expect us to deliver, like a great blockbuster game lineup and more TV, sports, movies and music. And we also unveiled new features like Internet Explorer for Xbox and Xbox SmartGlass, which will give you new and exciting ways to enjoy TV, movies, sports, games, web and music across the devices you already own.
Thanks to Xbox LIVE members like you we're redefining the future of the living room, and I want to take this opportunity to share a more detailed look at what's in store for entertainment on Xbox.
· International Expansion of Kinect Voice Control and Search. We are deeply committed to bringing the services and entertainment that people love on Xbox LIVE to our members around the world. This year, we are expanding our voice search capabilities to 12 new countries and we are bringing more entertainment applications than ever to more countries on Xbox LIVE. We've also made it easier to connect to our global Xbox LIVE service on Windows, Windows Phone, and Xbox 360 in English, French, Spanish and Chinese.
· Xbox SmartGlass. This is a brand new Xbox innovation that makes your entertainment smarter, more interactive and more fun – across the devices you already own. It makes your tablet or your phone more intuitive, so if you are watching a movie or playing a game on Xbox 360, relevant content will automatically appear on your SmartGlass device. Imagine having the ability to pick your plays from your tablet instead of the TV screen during an intense game of "Madden," keeping your next move a surprise to your opponent. Imagine meeting up with a boss in "Ascend" and seeing all the necessary details appear on your phone to help defeat it. Or, turn your favorite tablet or phone into a great remote control for your Xbox console. We're excited to make all this possible for you and more.
· Internet Explorer for Xbox. This is something you've been asking for, and we waited until we could deliver a web browser experience truly optimized for the TV. You'll be able to easily find and view the internet content you crave on the best screen in the house. And, with the power of Kinect and Xbox SmartGlass, you'll able to navigate websites with any device or the sound of your voice.
· Favorites. This is another request we've heard frequently. Favorites allows you to personalize the dashboard by saving your movies, TV, games, music and the web right to the home screen in the dashboard. Favorites will make it easier and faster than ever to get to your favorite content on Xbox and Xbox LIVE.
· Xbox on Windows 8 and Windows Phone. Xbox is the premium entertainment experience for video, music, and games on your Xbox 360, on Windows 8 and on Windows Phone. And of course our LIVE service makes it even easier to share, discover, play and more with all of your content.
- Xbox Music will bring you a world-class music library and great new ways to enjoy, share and discover new music across all of your Windows devices.
- Xbox Games makes your experience with the console even better. You'll have access to your avatar, recent games and leaderboards, and connections to your friends, giving you anywhere access to things you love about Xbox on the console. You can even purchase Xbox 360 games from anywhere and have them ready for download the moment you turn on your console.
- Xbox Video provides you access to the video marketplace, making it easy to browse and search for TV episodes and movies. You can see your videos in your personal collection and even cue the TV show or movie up on your Xbox 360.
· New Search Features. Last year, we brought you the ability to search for your favorite movie, TV show, or actor with your voice. This year, we're taking it one step further and bringing you the ability to search for your favorite genre. Now, you'll be able to say "Xbox, Bing comedy," to quickly find movies and TV shows across your entertainment apps. Not only can you search for your favorite type of content, but we're also extending Bing voice search to include content in the YouTube app. The best viral videos will now be discoverable in your search results, all with the sound of your voice.
· Performance Improvements. We continue to invest in improving the performance of the Xbox dashboard. Whether you're getting in and out of entertainment applications, browsing the games library or navigating large entertainment catalogs, we are working to make these experiences quick and seamless.
· Summer of Arcade. Each year Summer of Arcade delivers the most anticipated downloadable games of the season, and this year is no exception. With five back-to-back weeks of unparalleled releases, the fifth annual Summer of Arcade includes:
- "Deadlight" (Tequila Works/Microsoft Studios). "Deadlight" is a puzzle platformer, where the player must take advantage of the main character's agility to solve obstacles, and dodge zombies, manipulating the many interactive elements of the scenery. With more walking corpses than bullets, the feeling of danger is constant.
- "Dust: An Elysian Tail" (Humble Hearts/Microsoft Studios). As the mysterious warrior, Dust, your action-packed journey will take you from peaceful glades to snowy mountaintops and beyond. Battle dozens of enemies at once with an easy-to-learn, difficult-to-master combat system, and uncover the story of an ancient civilization on the brink of extinction as you fight to uncover your own past in a gorgeous hand-painted world.
- "Hybrid" (5TH Cell/5TH Cell). "Hybrid" is a pioneering third person shooter set in the near future, where global conflict exists between a species known as the Variant and a rebel human faction known as the Paladins. 5TH Cell strives to give players a completely new gameplay experience never seen before in the genre.
- "Tony Hawk's Pro Skater HD" (Robomodo/Activision). "Tony Hawk's Pro Skater HD" takes the best elements of the classic "THPS" games and gives them a fresh update to create an all new skateboarding experience. Tapping into fans' muscle memories, and combining sharp visuals with the best controls ever in a Tony Hawk game, the feel is cutting edge yet timeless.
- "Wreckateer" (Iron Galaxy/Microsoft Studios). "Wreckateer" uses Kinect to put you in control of a massive castle-wrecking ballista. With the help of Wreck and Tinker, travel the land and destroy 60 castles using six magical projectiles, and explore the infinite ways you can wreak havoc with "Wreckateer's" fully-dynamic destruction.
· Xbox LIVE Tournaments. We are working with Virgin Gaming to launch a new tournament service on Xbox LIVE, later this year. This new entertainment app will allow players to choose from a wide variety of free-to-play or paid-entry tournaments and head-to-head matches, for top titles from leading publishers. Xbox LIVE Tournaments, powered by Virgin Gaming, makes tournaments easy to join, fun and accessible to all types of gamers.
This year, we're delivering the best in entertainment from Xbox. We're bringing you more premium games, TV, movies, sports, web and music, enjoyed in unique ways that only Xbox can deliver. We're making the entertainment experience complete with more ways than ever to discover and engage with all your favorite content across devices. Our mission is to make Xbox an amazing place for all of your entertainment – anytime, on any device. Keep playing, sharing, watching and pushing us – it's only getting better from here.
See you on Xbox,
Marc Whitten
Gamertag – Notwen


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House Speaker Michael Madigan's request to be investigated by the Legislative Ethics Commission is being granted.
Legislative inspector general Tom Homer's office says the commission voted Thursday to investigate whether Madigan and fellow Democratic state Reps. Luis Arroyo and Elizabeth Hernandez interfered with Metra personnel matters.
Madigan last week wrote a letter to the bipartisan commission encouraging it to investigate the circumstances surrounding his involvement in supporting a Metra supervisor's recommendation to give an employee a raise. Allegations were detailed in a memo by former Metra CEO Alex Clifford.
Madigan says he's confident he did nothing inappropriate.
The commission will vote on possible sanctions for the lawmakers after Homer's investigation is done. But Homer has called the law governing conflicts and ethics standards a "toothless tiger" in the past.
Ethics Panel To Investigate Madigan's Metra Role
Copyright AP - Associated Press

subset: commoncrawl


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What are Cookies?
Cookies are small text files that are placed on your computer or mobile device by websites that you visit. They are widely used in order to make websites work, or work more efficiently, as well as to provide information to the owners of the site.
Type of Cookies
Persistent cookies – these cookies remain on a user's device for the period of time specified in the cookie. They are activated each time that the user visits the website that created that particular cookie.
Session cookies – these cookies allow website operators to link the actions of a user during a browser session. A browser session starts when a user opens the browser window and finishes when they close the browser window. Session cookies are created temporarily. Once you close the browser, all session cookies are deleted.
Analytical cookies – these have periodical maintenance purposes and in order to guarantee the best possible service to the user, websites use them to collect statistical data of user activity.
Third-party cookies – For example, those used by social networks, or external content aggregators.
How do we use cookies on our website?
We make use of cookies to help manage the site and your visitor experience. These cookies may be used to collect analytics of 'non-personal' visitor activity outlines, manage user logins and personal preferences, provide relevant or timely information to you or offer focused advertisements.
We use third-party cookies for web analytics and display advertising.
The services we use are Google Analytics (use of cookies by google analytics), and Google Adsense (privacy policy).


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The Texarkana Museum System presents the very first "Texarkana Phantom Ghost Walking Tour"! The first tour is scheduled for Saturday June 7, 2014. This is going to be an absolute blast for those that believe and non-believers too!
The Texarkana Phantom Ghost Walking Tour is a historically accurate walk through the legends, haunts, and spirits of Downtown Texarkana, including the site of the Paragon Fire, The Hotel Grim, the Swampoodle Brothels, and more.
Kick off the first tour of the season with us Saturday June 7. 2014! We will meet at 7pm at the Ace of Clubs House. Tickets are $15, and make sure you purchase your tickets in advance. They are selling out quickly and there is a limit of 30 people per tour. You can purchase tickets online HERE!
Get more information on the the Texarkana Phantom Ghost Walk Tour Facebook Page.
Proceeds will benefit the Texarkana Museum System.


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This is [Bob Baddeley]. He's an EE with an idea that started as a fun project until someone said "hey, that's cool". He started thinking about what it would take to launch it commercially and before he knew it he was involved in a startup accelerator to help him assemble what he needs to make his idea into a business. He spent several weeks in China learning about manufacturing and posted copiously about it.
We've seen other engineering trips to Asia, but [Bob's] experience living there provides a different perspective than a quick trip would. He posted about the thing's you'd expect, like touring a short-run prototyping facility. But he also talks about the rigors of being a pedestrian in a place where legged transport is marginalized by the gas and pedal powered vehicles that are crammed into every square-inch of the city. In the image above he's walking on the highway (for some inexplicable reason; deathwish?).
He also got to do a lot of fun stuff. He met a ton of folks, like [Bunnie Huang], [Ian Lesnet], and the team over at Seeed Studios. He even took his protoype to the local Maker Faire. It's a scoreboard which can be controlled from your smart phone. [Bob] tells us that he didn't get much interest showing the face of the device as seen in that post. But when he turned it around to show off the point-to-point wire porn he was mobbed by interested hackers. Guts!


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Now that you've enjoyed this week's edition of The Nerdist on BBC America*, let's look forward to next Saturday night, when you'll see Joseph Gordon-Levitt looking dapper, Community's Gillian Jacobs being adorable, Jonah and Matt hosting another game and getting taken to a special spot in London by Arthur Darvill, and Paul Scheer and Rob Huebel being very funny. (I was at this particular taping, and it's a good'un, no doubt about it.) Watch it next Saturday, 10/9c after new episodes of Doctor Who and Orphan Black on BBC America.
*Yes, I know, it's not available in every country. Or maybe you DVR'd it. You know what I mean. And, yes, this week's show will air Sunday, 7/6c/4p, on Space in Canada, as it does every week.


text: one thing must not be forgotten though. in regards to pkging stuff for the ubuntu variation once someone like you and me you upload it for someone higher up on the chain to check and upload to the servers. so basically someone is checking what someone else has packaged. On 7/2/08, Tim Cutts <tjrc at sanger.ac.uk> wrote: > > > On 2 Jul 2008, at 6:06 am, Mark Hahn wrote: > > I was hoping for some discussion of concrete issues. for instance, >>>> I have the impression debian uses something other than sysvinit - >>>> does that work out well? >>>> >>>> Debian uses standard sysvinit-style scripts in /etc/init.d, /etc/rc0.d, >>> ... >>> >> >> thanks. I guess I was assuming that mainstream debian was like ubuntu. >> > > It's sort of the other way around. Remember that Ubuntu is based off a > six-monthly snapshot of Debian's testing track, which is why Hardy looks a > lot more like the upcoming Debian Lenny than it does like Debian Etch. > > interesting - I wonder why. the main difference would be that the rpm >> format encodes dependencies... >> > > The difficulty is that many ISVs tend to do a fairly terrible job of > packaging their applications as RPM's or DEB's, for example creating init > scripts which don't obey the distribution's policies, or making willy-nilly > modifications to configuration files all over the place, even in other > packages (which in the Debian world is a *big* no-no, that's why many > Debian/Ubuntu packages have now moved to the conf.d type of configuration > directory, so that other packages can drop in little independent snippets of > configuration) > > I have seen, for example, .deb packages from a Large Company With Which We > Are All Familiar which essentially attempted to convert your system into a > Red Hat system by moving all your init scripts around and whatnot, so once > you'd installed this abomination, you'd totally wrecked the ability of many > of the main distro packages to be updated ever again. Oh, and of course > uninstalling the package didn't put anything back the way it had been > before. > > Like you, I tend to use tarballs if they are available, and if I want to > turn them into packages I do it myself, and make sure they are policy > compliant for the distro. > > So this, while not a statement in favour of either flavour of distro, is > definitely a warning to be very wary of what packages that have come from > sources other than the distro itself might do (which of course, you'd be > wary of anyway for security reasons). > > Tim > > > -- > The Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute is operated by Genome ResearchLimited, > a charity registered in England with number 1021457 and acompany registered > in England with number 2742969, whose registeredoffice is 215 Euston Road, > London, NW1 2BE._______________________________________________ > Beowulf mailing list, Beowulf at beowulf.org > To change your subscription (digest mode or unsubscribe) visit > http://www.beowulf.org/mailman/listinfo/beowulf > -- Jonathan Aquilina -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://www.beowulf.org/pipermail/beowulf/attachments/20080702/5e5d59d0/attachment.html>


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The Cook Band Building Fund
William A. Cook was born January 27, 1931 in Mattoon, Illinois. He earned a bachelor's degree in biology from Northwestern University in 1953 and pursued post-graduate work in physics at Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas. In 1963 Mr. Cook began Cook Group, Inc., in his family apartment in Bloomington. He combined the biological knowledge gained at Northwestern University with his U.S. Army training in operating-room technology and his experience in a Chicago medical company. He then applied them to the creation of innovative, life-saving devices. Today Cook Group, Inc. is one of the largest private medical device manufacturers in the world. Many physicians have praised Mr. Cook's ingenuity and his ability to provide practical solutions to medical problems.
Born March 1, 1934 in Evansville, Indiana, Gayle (Karch) Cook is a businesswoman, philanthropist, author, and preservationist. Despite the demands of being co-owner of Cook Group, Inc., she has been an active and highly successful advocate of historic preservation. Mrs. Cook has restored a number of buildings in southern Indiana and has shared her passion for the area's landmarks through two books, A Guide to Southern Indiana (with William Cook) and Monroe Country in Focus: Portrait of an Indiana County (with Diana Hawes). A 1956 graduate of Indiana University with a B.A. in Fine Arts, Mrs. Cook has maintained close ties to her alma mater as a board member of the IU Foundation and a life member of the Alumni Association.
The Cook Band Building Fund was established to designate funds for the creation of a facility for the Marching Hundred.


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Since fires seem to happen rather often (bear with me on this, I'll get to my point eventually) you hire your own fireman. Thats better, you are putting out fires early enough now that the house remains habitable more often.
But the fireman is only there during working hours, so you hire a team of firemen to give you 24x7 coverage, and tidy up the burned patches that appear every few days.
However your spouse is not happy with the mess, the disruption and the cost of a team of firemen, and a nice salesman comes by and sells you a set of smoke detectors, alarm bells and water sprinklers, and you hire a cleanup crew with mops.
Its still messy and inconvenient, and everything is slightly soggy so you ask around. You find that some people are having fires much less often than you do, and they think its because they had their house checked over by a building standards inspector.
So my point is that if you are running a datacenter things will go wrong, and from a performance and capacity perspective rapid growth rates, fast changing applications and sudden changes in user activity levels can all put you into a fire fighting situation.
You can develop a fire fighting mentality, or a fire prevention mentality. One problem is that fire fighters are heroes, but when did you last hear the story of a heroic building inspector saving thousands of lives? Few people are fans of building inspectors, but they are mandated by local government to keep people safe.
The recent upsurge of interest in the Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) seems to be a response to the auditing requirements of Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX). ITIL specifies lots of best practices for capacity planning amongst other things, as my co-author Bill Walker described in our Sun Blueprint on Capacity Planning Book. So it may be SOX that gets you to look at ITIL, and helps you justify your building inspector status as the hero that helped pass a SOX audit perhaps? OK, its a stretch, but perhaps it helps get beyond the fire fighting mentality towards predictive capacity modelling.
So how well are you doing? One way to find out is to rate yourself on a maturity model, and there is a good paper on this in the current issue (3.06) of the CMG newsletter Measure-IT.


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From Paris with love dir. by Pierre Morel
James Reece is trying hard to become a secret agent while working at the American Embassy in Paris. He is smart, and plays chess. And he is in love with a beautiful French woman, who has just asked him to marry her, and now his dream is coming true, he is taking action in the fight against drugs and terrorism, because he has been assigned to Charlie Wax, an "unorthodox" agent who may not play by the rules but gets things done.
Before I go any further I will say one thing: Do NOT watch this film.
19 August 2010


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Common Lisp the Language, 2nd Edition
In chapter 2 the syntax was sketched for notating data objects in Common Lisp. The same syntax is used for notating programs because all Common Lisp programs have a representation as Common Lisp data objects.
Lisp programs are organized as forms and functions. Forms are evaluated (relative to some context) to produce values and side effects. Functions are invoked by applying them to arguments. The most important kind of form performs a function call; conversely, a function performs computation by evaluating forms.
In this chapter, forms are discussed first and then functions. Finally, certain ``top level'' special forms are discussed; the most important of these is defun, whose purpose is to define a named function.


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Helena Bonham Carter Biography
Helena Bonham Carter
actressBorn: 5/26/1966
Birthplace: London, England
British actress best known for her work in romantic Edwardian period dramas. Her films include A Room With a View (1986), Howard's End (1992), The Wings of the Dove (1997), and Fight Club (1999). Her relationship with director Tim Burton has led to roles in his films Planet of the Apes (2001) Big Fish (2003)and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005). She did voice work in the 2005 animated films Wallace & Gromit: Curse of the Were-Rabbit and Tim Burton's Corpse Bride.
Erma Bombeck | B | Jon Bon Jovi |
See also:


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Audio-Technica AT2035 Cardioid Condenser Microphone
Audio-Technica AT2035 At A Glance
Designed for critical home/project/professional studio applications and live performance, this side-address cardioid studio condenser delivers exceptional detail and low noise. Equipped with a switchable 80 Hz high-pass filter and 10 dB pad, the AT2035 handles high sound pressure levels with ease. Along with its rugged construction and high-performance specifications, the AT2035 provides an exceptional level of consistency from model to model. It comes equipped with a protective pouch and a custom shock mount.
Exceptional Detail and Low Noise
The performance of this side-address mic makes it an excellent choice for both studio and live applications.
Perfect Mic for Creators
With its smooth, natural sound, the AT2035 is ideal for musicians, streamers, podcasters, and other content creators.
Professional Extras
The AT2035 is equipped with a switchable 80 Hz high-pass filter and 10 dB pad, and comes with a custom shock mount.


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Outside Perspectives Visiting Artists in Charleston by Pamela Wall and Sara Arnold
by Pamela Wall and Sara Arnold
Charleston, South Carolina, has long been a destination for those seeking warm weather, picturesque landscapes, and the charm of a historic city. Artists are no exception to the rule, and a number of well-known names have visited the city and translated their experiences into works of art. Included among this group are such twentieth-century masters as Edward Hopper, Childe Hassam, George Biddle, and photographer Walker Evans. Between the years 1910 to 1945, in particular, Charleston flourished as a Mecca for artists, a period described today as the Charleston Renaissance.
The Charleston Renaissance was largely the result of a small community of resident artists who discovered in Charleston's timeworn alleyways and weathered facades a visual beauty that spoke of its extraordinary architectural and cultural past. Centered on the work of Alice Ravenel Huger Smith (Fig. 1), Anna Heyward Taylor (Fig. 2), and Elizabeth O'Neill Verner, this time period engendered civic pride among Charlestonians and brought national attention to the rich cultural and architectural heritage of the city.
In many cases, the extent of interaction between the resident and visiting artists in Charleston during this time period is unclear. However, artists from each group depicted similar subject matter, and a sharing of subject matter suggests a sharing of ideas. Like the local artists, many of the artists who made shorter stays were captivated with the architecture of Charleston. Childe Hassam (Fig. 3), Colin Campell Cooper (Fig. 4), and Walker Evans all created work featuring the city's structures. Edward Hopper (Fig. 5) focused on atmospheric impressions of the architecture and surrounding landscape. Artists such as Anthony Thieme (Fig. 6) captured the surrounding Lowcountry marshlands, while New York artists George Biddle (Fig. 7) and Palmer Schoppe (Fig. 8) turned their attention to the African-American inhabitants of the city. These artists are part of a long tradition of cultural exchange in Charleston, a tradition that remains very much alive today.
Fig. 1: Alice Ravenel Huger Smith (1876–1958), Cattle in the Broom Grass, An Autumn Evening, from the series A Carolina Rice Plantation of the Fifties, ca. 1935. Watercolor on paper, 18 x 13 inches. Image courtesy of the Gibbes Museum of Art/Carolina Art Association. 1937.009.0008.
A native Charlestonian, Alice Smith used her art to bring attention to the beauty and heritage of Charleston and the surrounding Lowcountry region. In addition to studio practice, Smith was active at the Gibbes Museum of Art, where she organized exhibitions of her own work as well as the work of others. Cattle in the Broom Grass is part of a series of thirty original watercolors Smith created for A Carolina Rice Plantation of the Fifties, published in 1936.
Fig. 2: Anna Heyward Taylor (American, 1879–1956), The City, 1939. Linoleum print on paper, 14-3/8 x 12-7/8 inches. Image courtesy of the Gibbes Museum of Art/Carolina Art Association. 1998.007.0001.
A native of Columbia, South Carolina, Anna Heyward Taylor is recognized among the leaders of the Charleston Renaissance. Prior to settling in Charleston in 1929, Taylor traveled and studied widely, including two excursions to Europe as a student of William Merritt Chase. She also made extended visits to British Guiana and Mexico and created prints, watercolors, and textiles based on her experiences in each location. Taylor is best known for her strongly-composed woodblock and linoleum prints, such as The City, which depicts a quintessential scene of the South Carolina Lowcountry.
Fig. 3: Childe Hassam (1859–1935), Spring in Charleston, 1925. Etching on paper, 7-1/4 x 11-3/4 inches. Image courtesy of the Gibbes Museum of Art/Carolina Art Association. 1993.003.
Between late March and early April 1925, Childe Hassam traveled south to Savannah, Georgia, stopping in Baltimore, Richmond, and Charleston along the way. Though he likely arrived in Charleston while the city's vibrant spring foliage was nearing its peak, the renowned American Impressionist chose to depict his surroundings in black-and-white, this etching emphasizing the city's native vegetation. While the focal point of Spring in Charleston is the striking entrance of a Charleston single house, the abundant shrubs and vines in the adjacent garden demonstrate the interconnection between the city's historic architecture and lush landscaping.
Fig. 4: Colin Campbell Cooper (1856–1937), Old Charleston Market,1913. Gouache on paperboard, 4-5/8 x 7-1/8 inches. Image courtesy of the Gibbes Museum of Art/Carolina Art Association. 1994.016.
Colin Campbell Cooper, widely recognized for his architectural paintings, particularly his depictions of the modern American skyscraper, was an avid traveler. In fact, he was aboard the S. S. Carpathia when it steamed to the rescue of passengers of the Titanic in April 1912. The following spring, Cooper visited Charleston. While traveling, he often made lively gouache sketches of city streetscapes like this one depicting Market Hall, one of Charleston's most recognizable architectural landmarks.
Fig. 5: Edward Hopper (1882–1967), Charleston Slum, Charleston, South Carolina, 1929. Watercolor on paper, 16 x 24 inches. Private collection.
Arriving by automobile, Edward Hopper and his wife, Josephine Nivison Hopper, spent three weeks in Charleston in April 1929. The catalyst for the Hopper's trip south remains unknown; however, Hopper made several sketches of the city and its surroundings and completed a number of watercolors during his stay. For Charleston Slum, Hopper strayed from the boundaries of the historic district frequented by tourists, and portrayed the skeletal-like remains of a once grand Charleston mansion on the northeast side of town. The building depicted is stripped of its original ornamental exterior and porch.
Fig. 6: Anthony Thieme (1888–1954), Morning Light Near Charleston, South Carolina, ca. 1940s. Oil on canvas, 30 x 36-1/4 inches. Image courtesy of the Gibbes Museum of Art/Carolina Art Association. 1991.027.
Many artists who sojourned to Charleston were greatly inspired by the unique landscapes of the outlying lowlands surrounding the city. Anthony Thieme, who migrated seasonally between his studios in Rockport, Massachusetts, and St. Augustine, Florida, spent time in Charleston in the 1940s. His Morning Light Near Charleston offers an impressionistic vision of the moss-laden live oaks and coastal marshlands that characterize much of the Lowcountry landscape.
Fig. 7: George Biddle (1885–1973), The Battery, Evening, 1931. Oil on canvas, 26-1/2 x 26-1/2 inches. Image courtesy of the Gibbes Museum of Art/Carolina Art Association. 1999.002.
A native of Philadelphia, George Biddle graduated from Harvard Law School in 1911 and was admitted to the Pennsylvania Bar the same year, but instead decided to pursue a career in art. From 1911 to 1916, Biddle studied at the Académie Julian in Paris and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. He learned printmaking in Munich and spent summers in Giverny with Frederick Frieseke. After serving in the army during World War I, Biddle traveled to Tahiti, Mexico, and Paris. In 1930, he was commissioned by George and Ira Gershwin to illustrate the libretto for Porgy and Bess. He spent that spring in Charleston, where he became friends with DuBose Heyward, author of the novel Porgy on which Gershwin's opera was based. Charleston and its cultural reawakening inspired Biddle, who created a number of paintings of life in the Lowcountry, including The Battery, Evening, which depicts nannies tending to children on the southern tip of the Charleston peninsula, an area known as the Battery.
Fig. 8: Palmer Schoppe (1912–2001), Drummer, 1934. Oil on artist's board, 14 x 10 inches. Image courtesy of the Gibbes Museum of Art/Carolina Art Association. 2004.003.
Like many of the artists who visited Charleston, Schoppe traveled south from New York City, where he was enrolled at the Arts Students League. Schoppe headed to Charleston during the winter of 1934 in search of warmer weather and quickly became enchanted with the city, its people, its spirituals, and the music of the Lowcountry. Schoppe took a particular interest in the people of the Gullah community and created work that reflected their culture and traditions, such as Drummer. Following his trip to the region, Schoppe completed The Carolina Low Country, a series of ten lithographs featuring scenes of rural life inspired by the artist's visit to Wadmalaw Island, a sea island near Charleston.
Fig. 9: Alfred Hutty (1877–1954), Meeting Street, ca. 1925. Oil on canvas, 23-1/2 x 291/2 inches. Image courtesy of the Gibbes Museum of Art/Carolina Art Association. 1961.010.
Alfred Hutty traveled to Charleston for the first time in 1920 to teach a season of painting classes at the Gibbes Museum of Art. Overwhelmed by the city's beauty, he returned every winter for the next thirty years. Though his main studio and home remained in the artists' colony at Woodstock, New York, Hutty became one of the most prolific interpreters of Charleston and its surrounding landscapes during the first half of the twentieth century. His broadly exhibited etchings and paintings enticed a number of artists to visit the region.
Fig. 10: Peter Sekaer (1901–1950), Pearlstine Alley, Charleston, South Carolina, 1936. Gelatin silver print on paper, 7-1/8 x 9-3/8 inches. Image courtesy of the Gibbes Museum of Art/Carolina Art Association. 1999.016.0002.
Working alongside Walker Evans during his 1936 photographic journey through the South was Peter Sekaer. Evans's cool, detached style and choice of subject matter clearly influenced Sekaer. In fact, a number of photographs created by the two artists during this trip are indistinguishable. Sekaer subsequently developed his own artistic voice, and, though attracted to signs and other symbols of American culture, was more interested in directly engaging people, resulting in a sensitive style of documentary photography evident in Pearlstine Alley.
Fig. 11: Birge Harrison (1854–1929), Rosy Moon Off Charleston Harbor, ca. 1908–1916. Oil on Masonite, 18-1/8 x 30-3/8 inches. Image courtesy of the Gibbes Museum of Art/Carolina Art Association. 1921.002.0001.
Birge Harrison was inspired to travel south after seeing etchings of Charleston by Charles Henry White published in Harper's magazine in November 1907. An article on the city by White accompanied his etchings; in it he declared, "this graceful colonial city of roses, with its dim, half-forgotten gardens…is only beginning to be discovered by the tourists and is still shunned by the artist, whose instinctive, aesthetic flunkeyism sends him to Dordrecht or Venice, to grope about for a mildewed motive worked threadbare by generations of painters." Harrison, then director of the Art Students League at Woodstock, New York, accepted White's challenge and made his first visit in 1908; enchanted by his experience, he became a regular winter resident. His Rosy Moon off Charleston is one of four known paintings this acclaimed American Tonalist made of the city.
Fig. 12: Henry Botkin (1896–1983), Porgy and Bess with George, Near Folly Island, ca. 1935. Watercolor and ink on paper, 16-1/2 x 19-3/8 inches. Image courtesy of the Gibbes Museum of Art/Carolina Art Association. 1988.011.0002.
Born in Boston, Henry Botkin received his early training at the Massachusetts School of Art and the Art Students League. After moving to New York, he established himself as an illustrator for The Saturday Evening Post and Harper's. In the 1920s, Botkin traveled widely in Europe, South Africa, Canada, and Japan. In 1933, he accompanied his cousin George Gershwin to Charleston. While Gershwin worked on his opera, Porgy and Bess,Botkin toured Charleston and nearby Folly Beach, painting the people and places of the Lowcountry.
Pamela Wall is curator of exhibitions and Sara Arnold is curator of collections at the Gibbes Museum of Art in Charleston, South Carolina. Angela Mack is executive director and chief curator at the Gibbes Museum of Art.
This article was originally published in the 11th Anniversary (2011) issue of Antiques & Fine Art magazine, a fully digitized version of which is available at www.afamag.com. AFA is affiliated with Incollect.com.


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Alaska—there is no place on Earth like it, with its amazing scenery, fascinating wildlife, friendly people, and remote cities. Ride the thrilling Alaska Railroad to Denali National Park, home to North America's highest peak, Denali, formerly known as Mount McKinley. Enjoy a cruise of Kenai Fjords National Park, where you will witness glaciers crashing into the sea and hear their thunderous roar. Board a sternwheeler for a cruise on the Chena and Tanana Rivers in Fairbanks. On Globus Alaska holidays, you'll not only experience these must-do activities, you'll also get a chance to partake in unique experiences, such as an exclusive presentation on Denali National Park by a local Naturalist and a visit to an Iditarod champion's home and kennels. Lose yourself in the sounds and sights that define the majesty of Alaska, and see what the "Big Land" of Alaska has to offer on these exhilarating Alaska vacations.
Looking for more inspiration? Visit our sister company Cosmos for more escorted tours to Alaska.
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Equipment Leasing & Finance Index Up 3% YOY, 15% YTD
January 2, 2013
The Equipment Leasing and Finance Association's (ELFA) Monthly Leasing and Finance Index (MLFI-25), which reports economic activity from 25 companies representing a cross section of the $725 billion equipment finance sector, showed their overall new business volume for November was $6.4 billion, up 3 percent from volume of $6.2 billion in the same period in 2011. Their volume was down 16 percent from the previous month, and their year-to-date cumulative new business volume increased 15 percent.
Receivables over 30 days increased for the first time in six months to 2.0 percent, up from 1.7 percent in October, and they were unchanged when compared to the same period in 2011. Charge-offs were up from the previous month at 0.5 percent, and down by 28.6 percent compared to the same period last year.
Credit approvals totaled 77.0 percent in November, down from 79.5 percent in October. Forty-six percent of participating organizations reported submitting more transactions for approval during November, down from 66 percent the previous month.
Finally, total headcount for equipment finance companies was down 1 percent from the previous month, and declined 2 percent year over year.
Separately, the Equipment Leasing & Finance Foundation's Monthly Confidence Index (MCI-EFI) for December is 48.5, a decrease from the November index of 49.9, reflecting industry participants' concerns regarding the impact of fiscal issues on capital expenditures, despite an overall sense of optimism in the equipment finance industry.
ELFA president and CEO William G. Sutton, CAE, said, "New business volume in the equipment finance sector of the U.S. economy continues to show slow, but steady, growth. Credit quality and portfolio performance also trend positively as delinquencies and losses remain under control for MLFI-25 respondents. We are hopeful that, as recent 'fiscal cliff' negotiations between the White House and the Congress seem to be entering a decisive phase, businesses will interpret this as a sign that the economy gradually will pick up steam and is poised for a more robust recovery. Only with a confident business sector will the equipment finance marketplace thrive and, indeed, expand, as investment spending strengthens going forward."
Tony Golobic, chairman and CEO, GreatAmerica Financial Services, said, "For much of the year, we at GreatAmerica Financial Services had experienced a solid increase in our overall commercial equipment lease volume from throughout the country; however, as we edged our way into the fourth quarter we began to feel the effects of the lack of clarity in Washington regarding the budget deficit. Without question, concerns about the ballooning budget deficit and the resulting lack of tax clarity are causing indecision related to new capital expenditures within the business community. While cautiously optimistic with respect to the underlying economy, we certainly need to have greater clarity on the new tax structure and where the spending cuts will be positioned. To the extent there is some business-friendly clarity, I believe we will see a return to the type of growth we had seen earlier in the year."
The MLFI-25 is the only index that reflects capex, or the volume of commercial equipment financed in the U.S. The MLFI-25 is released globally at 8 a.m. Eastern time from Washington, D.C., each month on the day before the U.S. Department of Commerce releases the durable goods report. The MLFI-25 is a financial indicator that complements the durable goods report and other economic indexes, including the Institute for Supply Management Index, which reports economic activity in the manufacturing sector. Together with the MLFI-25 these reports provide a complete view of the status of productive assets in the U.S. economy: equipment produced, acquired, and financed.
The MLFI-25 is a time series that reflects two years of business activity for the 25 companies currently participating in the survey. The latest MLFI-25, including methodology and participants is available below and also at www.elfaonline.org/Research/MLFI/
The ELFA produces the MLFI-25 survey to help member organizations achieve competitive advantage by providing them with leading-edge research and benchmarking information to support strategic business decision making.
The MLFI-25 is a barometer of the trends in U.S. capital equipment investment. Five components are included in the survey: new business volume (originations), aging of receivables, charge-offs, credit approval ratios, (approved vs. submitted) and headcount for the equipment finance business.
The MLFI-25 measures monthly commercial equipment lease and loan activity as reported by participating ELFA member equipment finance companies representing a cross section of the equipment finance sector, including small ticket, middle-market, large ticket, bank, captive and independent leasing and finance companies. Based on hard survey data, the responses mirror the economic activity of the broader equipment finance sector and current business conditions nationally.
ELFA MLFI-25 participants include:
ADP Credit
BancorpSouth Equipment Finance
Bank of America
Bank of the West
BB&T Bank
BMO Harris Equipment Finance
Canon Financial Services
Caterpillar Financial Services
De Lage Landen Financial Services
Dell Financial Services
Direct Capital Corp.
EverBank Commercial Finance
Fifth Third Equipment Finance
First American Equipment Finance, a City National Bank Co.
GreatAmerica Financial Services
Hitachi Credit America
HP Financial Services
Huntington Equipment Finance
John Deere Financial
Key Equipment Finance
M&T Bank
Marlin Leasing
Merchants Capital
PNC Equipment Finance
RBS Asset Finance
SG Equipment Finance
Siemens Financial Services
Stearns Bank
Susquehanna Commercial Finance
US Bancorp Equipment Finance
Verizon Capital
Volvo Financial Services
Wells Fargo Equipment Finance
ELFA is the trade association that represents companies in the $725 billion equipment finance sector, which includes financial services companies and manufacturers engaged in financing capital goods. ELFA members are the driving force behind the growth in the commercial equipment finance market and contribute to capital formation in the U.S. and abroad. Its more than 575 members include independent and captive leasing and finance companies, banks, financial services corporations, broker/packagers and investment banks, as well as manufacturers and service providers. ELFA has been equipping business for success for more than 50 years. For more information, please visit www.elfaonline.org.
ELFA is the premier source for statistics and analyses concerning the equipment finance sector. Please visit www.elfaonline.org/Research for additional information.
The Equipment Leasing & Finance Foundation is the non-profit affiliate to the Equipment Leasing and Finance Association, providing future-focused research to the equipment finance industry. For more information please visit the website at www.leasefoundation.org.
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Welcome to the Vegetation Management Resource Center and to the inaugural issue of Vegetation Management Insights.
What are our aspirations? This new project from T&D World magazine will feature developments in the utility vegetation management (VM) industry and the most comprehensive compilation of vegetation management research and information. You will find this in the Vegetation Management Resource Center. The VM Resource Center is a work in progress and will continue to be so. To that end, I invite you to submit research and historical articles of interest and benefit to the utility VM industry to me, for addition to the Vegetation Management Resource Center. These might be articles like Priority Trimming to Improve Reliability that would benefit the VM industry but have not found a public forum because they were rejected by a peer reviewed journal but were too technical or detailed for an industry magazine.
We want to bring VM to the broader utility audience; to bridge the gap between utility executives and the VM group. Which leads us to another function…
The VM Insights will include editorial content with which we intend to stimulate, provoke, educate and sometimes criticize. With that stated, let's return to the above comment on a gap between utility executives and the VM group. Does such a gap exist? Over 35 years in this business forces me to answer, it does. But you don't need to take my word for it. Here are some questions to help you make your own determination. At your utility where do trees rank as a cause of uncontrolled outages? Where does VM rank in O & M spending? Is the assignment of company resources commensurate with these rankings? In using company resources I'm extending the question beyond funding, to such things as information technology, public relations, financial and regulatory services. Want to dig deeper into this topic? I would recommend you read The Great American Blackout and Vegetation Management Concepts and Principles.
In future issues of VM Insights I will address such topics as customer contact, communication between utility departments and the VM group, peer-reviewed journals, application of financial and accounting principles, VM and the regulatory process, research vs. demonstration plots, terminology, hazard trees, trees and reliability, reliability expectations, asset management, storm damage and probably much, much more on the assignment of resources to VM.
Send articles to Sig Guggenmoos at [email protected].


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Posted by Editor on 01/23/10
Day 1
The Canadian Track Team competing at the final World Cup of 20009-2010 season woke up to a beautiful sunny day in Beijing, a nice change from the smog they arrived in a few days ago. Eight of the ten Canadians were scheduled to race, including Tara Whitten in the individual pursuit.
"I am really looking forward to the pursuit ... it was the first event that I competed in at the World Cup level and it still is my favourite event." Whitten posted the third fastest time in qualifying, 1.3 seconds behind the second fastest qualifier. Not happy with her performance she came back fighting in the bronze medal match and took off more than a second from her qualifying ride to win her match in a time of 3:40.365. Allison Shanks of New Zealand took home the gold in a time of 3:33.360 and Vilija Sereikaite of Lithuania the silver in 3:41.679.
Monique Sullivan finished 18th in the sprint qualifiers in a time of 11.894, but only the top 16 advanced to the sprint round. Stephanie Roorda and Laura Brown, both competing in their first World Cup scratch races, placed 13th and 16th respectively in their qualifying heats, narrowly missing a start in the final.
The men's team sprint team of Travis Smith, Joseph Veloce, and Stephane Cossette performed well with a ninth place finish and time of 45.652. Coach Richard Wooles believes they can shave off 0.3 or more seconds with some more practice and technical adjustments and that they can place in the top-10 at Worlds.
Zach Bell, who finished fourth at the last World Cup in Cali and second last year in Beijing in the points race, was aiming for the highest step on the podium. He won points in three of the sprints, and gained points for lapping the field in the first half of the race. With about 25 laps to go he seized an opportunity to lap the field again and won the race one lap ahead of everyone else.
"It felt great to finally crack this nut I have been working on for five years. I went in with a plan to be at the sharp end of the race the whole time, not to be leading the whole time but to always be in striking distance. Then when opportunities to score came I was supposed to take them and that's what I did."
Coach Richard Wooles was pleased with what he saw on the first day of racing "Zach's first World Cup win in the points race is showing progression and the men's team sprint showed areas of improvement. We are still mostly a development team and this is the time to figure out what works for the athletes' preparation heading in to the next two seasons, which will count towards Olympic qualifying. Some of the athletes may have gone too hard in training in LA last week and learning how to adapt to a 16 hour time change and jet leg is important too."
Day 2
Zach Bell stood on top of the podium for the second time in two days to sing the Canadian national anthem. Bell, of Watson Lake, Yukon, who was ranked ninth in the world in the scratch race last year, rode an aggressive race. Having only raced in one international scratch race this year, he was sitting 135th in the world ranking and knew he would have to place in the top four in order to qualify for the World Championships at the end of March, but he wouldn't be happy unless he finished on the podium. He rode a tactically strong race and powered to the front when needed to rev it up and cross the finish line first, gaining a gold medal and most likely a berth at Worlds.
There are over 300 competitors at the Beijing World Cup and the event with perhaps the stiffest competition was the men's Keirin. Coach Richard Wooles claimed that all the heats were strong and "could be World or Olympic final groupings."
Travis Smith, of Calgary, Alberta, was one of the strongest competitors at the last round of the World Cup, and was looking to make better tactical decisions here and sharpen his racing senses. After breaking his hip in this event almost three years ago, this is the first season that Travis has shown a return to his pre-crash speed and power, as well as mental confidence. Smith finished fourth in round one and was relegated in the repechage, to finish in 21st place. His focus will now be on the Commonwealth Games in October and looking forward to the 2012 Olympics.
Allan Leparskas, from London, Ontario, who represented Canada at the Junior World Championships last August, made his World Cup debut in the Kilo and finished in 22nd place with a very respectable time of 1:06.981. Monique Sullivan competed in the 500 meters with a time of 36.111 for 18th place. The Calgarian will be looking for a top 8 finish in the Keirin on the last day of racing.
Tara Whitten, from Edmonton, Alberta, who won a bronze medal on Day 1 in the individual pursuit, won her qualifying heat in the points race to advance to the final. She racked up points in the third and fifth points laps for a total of 5 points and was tied for fifth place going in to the final sprint. Her attempts at gaining more points were not successful and she crossed the finish line 15th, ending up 8th overall.
The final day of racing will get under way tonight at 9:00 pm EST and the Canadian Women's Team Pursuit team have a shot at a medal after winning gold at the last World Cup. Canadians will also be racing in the following events:
Men's Sprint: Joseph Veloce (ON) and Stephane Cossette (QUE)
Women's Team Pursuit: Tara Whitten (AB), Laura Brown (AB), Stephanie Roorda (AB)
Women's Keirin: Monique Sullivan (AB)
Return to Cycling 4 Women homepage | Return to Canadian Cyclist homepage | Back to Top |


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Network Coverage Maps; Bell vs Telus vs Fido vs Rogers
With the upcoming iPhone release from both Telus and Bell, I thought it would be interesting to take a look at the network coverage provided by all the carriers in Canada.
As many know, Telus and Bell are launching HSPA+ networks, a complete departure from their existing CDMA networks. The new network technology also puts them at par with Rogers/Fido. The new Telus/Bell network offerings have been a strong point of conversation from Canadians as many worry that since the network is brand new, it may not be as reliable as, for example, the established Rogers/Fido network.
While company coverage maps are by no means meant to measure actual network coverage, since often times they are not entirely accurate, the maps are the best resource customers and observers have.
With that being said, let's take a look at the various coverage offered by the four iPhone carriers in Canada.
Below are the new Telus HSPA+ coverage maps for Western and Eastern Canada. While the coverage looks quite good overall, the map is not very meaningful on its own. (Click images to enlarge).
If we compare the Telus coverage to Bell (link here), both companies offer almost identical coverage across Canada. Also, using the above Telus map as an indicator for Bell would be appropriate since the two companies are building the upcoming HSPA+ networks together.
What this means for existing or new Telus/Bell customers is, according to the maps, the same coverage customers experience today seems to be available for the new networks as well, just faster due to the HSPA+ technologies. I'd say that's good news.
Looking at the Rogers (link here)/Fido coverage map below, initially it seems as if Rogers, Telus, and Bell are on an even playing field, but upon closer inspection, there are differences. (Click image to enlarge).
Between Rogers, Telus, and Bell, the two latter companies offer more coverage in more areas. For an obvious example, look at Newfoundland. The Rogers/Fido coverage is almost bare but Telus/Bell coverage is plentiful. While the additional areas that are covered by Telus/Bell are not overly significant from Rogers/Fido, that coverage will make a difference to customers in those areas who may have wanted an iPhone but could not get it due to poor cellular coverage.
But then returns the argument of just how reliable the new Telus and Bell networks will be against the established Rogers/Fido. While all four networks provide good coverage, with Bell and Telus providing more across Canada than Rogers/Fido, the quality of the networks will be the true test.
Once the new networks go live and become increasingly established, the true conclusions of quality will appear. But as it stands now, at least when comparing coverage maps, it would seem that Telus/Bell have the upper hand.
How's the network coverage in your area? Are these coverage maps accurate for you? Will your city/area have network coverage for the iPhone from the wireless carriers in Canada?


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Wordless Wednesday is a daily
prompt at Geneabloggers that asks family historians to create a post in which
the main focus is a photograph or image.
My great-aunt Helen Killeen Parker kept a photo album
from 1918-20. Several pages are devoted
to summer at Ocean View. I have posted others
HERE and HERE. She captioned this one "Oh


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Animal addicts are nothing new on this blog. But now researchers have shown that in addition to drink and drugs, rats can become addicted to junk food.
Anyone who's seen wild rats foraging in dumpsters would probably suspect that they are attracted to the worst products of mankind's grocery-industrial complex. But now, as reported by Science News, a couple of fiendish neuroscience researchers have brought this out in the open. Two neuroscientists named Paul, Johnson and Kenny,
loaded up on typical Western fare, including Ho Hos, sausage, pound cake, bacon and cheesecake. Johnson fed rats either a standard diet of high-nutrient, low-calorie chow, or unlimited amounts of the palatable junk food. Rats that ate the junk food soon developed compulsive eating habits and became obese.
The researchers found that the rats' brains showed the same changes as those of addicts, and what's more, that they would keep eating junk food even if they learned that an electric shock would follow it. And the rodents find it just as hard to break the habit as you do:
When the junk food was taken away and the rats had access only to nutritious chow (what Kenny calls the "salad option"), the obese rats refused to eat. "They starve themselves for two weeks afterward," Kenny says. "Their dietary preferences are dramatically shifted."
Maybe this should be the next big government nutrition education campaign. The next time you reach for that bag of chips, think about it - Do you really want to lower yourself to the level of a rat?
Picture of rat with cookie - which is so cute that it really contradicts the whole point of this post, I know - by Flickr user Klara Kim.


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Preparing for an Academic Career in the Geosciences: Pre-workshop Assignment
Some of you have already started to look for jobs, while for others of you, that is in the future. As part of your preparation for the workshop, we would like you to explore what it's like to be a faculty member at different types of institutions and to learn more about the job search process. To do so, we ask you to do the following four things before the workshop (the tables in step 4 are available as a Word file (Microsoft Word 2007 (.docx) 24kB Jun3 13)):- Explore the range of academic jobs and careers at different types of institutions.
- Read the career profiles of the workshop leaders to learn about the workshop leaders and their work.
- Take a look at a few of the career profiles of leaders from previous Preparing for an Academic Career workshops.
- Additional career profiles are available from leaders of the Early Career Geoscience Faculty workshop.
- You might also take a look at the "beyond faculty" careers collection.
- Learn (more) about the academic job search process.
- Look at the On the Cutting Edge web resources on The Job Search, starting with that page and exploring other parts of the site, including the Beginning the Search section.
- The Cutting Edge website has useful resources about Assembling Your Application Materials, including information about teaching statements and research statements, which may be requested as part of the application materials. If they are not requested, some applicants choose to incorporate some of the content from these statements into their cover letter.
- The job search process and interviews at two-year colleges commonly follows a different format. Here are two Cutting Edge resources that provide information about interviews at two-year colleges:
- Explore various resources related to teaching, research, and the job search
- Check out responses to many of the questions frequently asked by workshop participants that are compiled on this FAQs page. These FAQs will get you to explore various resources on the Cutting Edge and SERC websites that might be of interest, now or later.
- Complete the job search inventory and reflection on your experiences and possible next steps.
- Download and print the assignment Word file (Microsoft Word 2007 (.docx) 24kB Jun3 13) and complete Table 1 and Table 2 (or make your own file with your responses). Table 1 includes an inventory of components of the job search (and is an inventory for your own professional planning and use). Table 2 asks you to reflect on some aspects of your experience in research and teaching and some possible next steps as you move forward in your career. The tables are for your own use and we will not ask you to submit either table to the workshop leaders.
Table 2. Prompts for reflection about various aspects of your professional experience.


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Now streaming on:
"Lawless" is a well-made film about ignorant and violent people. Like the recent "Killer Joe," I can only admire this film's craftsmanship and acting, and regret its failure to rise above them. Its characters live by a barbaric code that countenances murder. They live or die in a relentless hail of gunfire. It's not so much that the movie is too long, as that too many people must be killed before it can end.
I don't require movies to be about good people, and I don't reject screen violence. The Australian director of "Lawless," John Hillcoat, made a film named "The Proposition" (2006) that was also about a band of brothers up against a ruthless lawman, and it was one of the best films of that year. Based loosely on fact, it was written by the musician Nick Cave, and perhaps that's why both men were hired to make "Lawless," based on a war between Virginia moonshiners and lawmen. Whatever inspired "The Proposition" is lacking here, however; the characters seem less driven than propelled by a script, and the most villainous is so far over the top, he upstages himself.
We meet the three Bondurant brothers in Franklin County, Va., during the Prohibition. They make excellent moonshine and defend their turf without compromise. Into their backwoods domain ventures Special Agent Charley Rakes (Guy Pearce), a fed from Chicago. He works with the none too enthusiastic local sheriff's department to do — what? Shut them down? Take them over? Kill them all?
This Charley Rakes, he's a piece of work. Here in the deep woods, he sticks out like a riverboat gambler. He's meticulously well-dressed, parts and slicks back his hair like Valentino, and uses so much cologne, he can't sneak up on anyone. He may be the first man in the history of Franklin County to wear dress gloves in the daytime. Pearce creates a detailed, foppish performance, adorning a sadistic personality. Charley is such a snake he deserves to be shot just on principle. One of the movie's mysteries is how he survives for so long.
The three brothers run a combination shop, restaurant and gas station in the backwoods, where as I recall, we never see a customer. It's their center of moonshine operations. The oldest brother is Forrest Bondurant (Tom Hardy, Bane in "The Dark Knight Rises"). Brother Howard (Jason Clarke) is the most feared in the family. Kid brother Jack (Shia LaBeouf) feels he has never really proved himself to the others, but the movie provides him with the opportunity. What kind of a man is Forrest? When his throat is slit open, he holds the edges of the wound together and sets out to walk through the snow to the hospital.
Drawn to this remote place is a mysterious woman named Maggie (Jessica Chastain) from Chicago, who was a dancer but wanted to move to a more peaceful place. She becomes a waitress, bookkeeper, business manager and Forrest's girlfriend. Young Jack spies an angelic beauty named Bertha (Mia Wasikowska) in church. It's not that he's a churchgoer; he was looking for her. They become sweethearts. The other local character of note is Cricket Pate (Dane DeHaan), a harmless, half-witted innocent who of course is destined to die horribly.
After assorted deaths, a war seems inevitable. What may strike you as surprising is the film's climactic battle. On a road near town, the two sides essentially line up their cars opposite each other and start shooting. They have that strange illusion of invulnerability born of hate and guns in their hands, and blast away in full view until those required to die do so, and the others survive.
By that point, I'd seen enough death and bloodshed. I'd also lost interest in the characters: the insane dandy, the violent brothers and even both women, who appear because you need some women around, I suppose. "Lawless" takes pains to inform us it's based on a true story, and indeed the script is based on a book by Matt Bondurant, whose grandfather was Jack. I believe it's based on facts. I wish it were based on insights. The movie's publicity tells us: "Brazen and fearless, these young rebel brothers helped build the American Dream." I don't even want to think about that.
115 minutes
Jessica Chastain as Maggie
Guy Pearce as Charlie
Shia LaBeouf as Jack
Tom Hardy as Forrest
Jason Clarke as Howard
Gary Oldman as Floyd


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What a year we have had together. From New York Fashion Week to London, Paris and Malibu you all have been here as witness to one of the most extraordinary years of our lives and I can not thank you enough for the support. Happy Holidays around the world, a very Merry Christmas to you & yours and Happy New Year…. From Me To You.
Recreated vintage dress by Sandra Murphy


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Mike | Contact Mike |
Who is Mike?????
Good question...here goes...
-Mike was born and raised in Lansing
-From an early age Mike showed a disturbing propensity for hoarding music
-Mike attended both LCC and MSU...at least until he exhausted his options of music appreciation classes.
-Mike bleeds Green and White, although he'd appreciate it if you didn't stick him with a pin to test that theory.
-Mike has his own radio station. Don't ask how he pulled that off...even he's not sure!
-Mike figured as long as he had his own station, he'd just play everything in his collection.
-Mike's music collection isn't particularly organized. If the Bee Gees play between Van Halen and Avril Lavigne...well that's just the way it goes.
-The way Mike sees it, if you have to work he might as well make the experience as enjoyable as possible. Mike starts and ends your workday with an hour of commercial free music, at 8:30am and 4:30pm.
-Mike actually gives you a reason to come back early from lunch...Mike plays a song that hit #1 on the charts every day at 1pm. It's called Mike's 1 at 1. Listen, and you just might learn something.
-Mike strongly believes in giving away free stuff...he just doesn't feel like wasting precious music playing time to do so. Try the website and Facebook page.
-Much to Mike's parent's dismay...Mike's still single. Seems the girls always leave once they see his dining room is used for music storage.
-If you are an available female interested in Mike...he enjoys long walks on the Lansing River Trail, evenings watching the Lugnuts, swimming in Lake Lansing, sledding at Dead Man's Hill in Holt, roller skating at the EDRU Skate-a-rama, browsing fine art in Old Town, and an occasional night out at the Green Door. And he's devastatingly handsome...don't let the bag fool you! Of course there is that little thing about storing music in his dining room...


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Talk: Main Page
Ideas & suggestions
I've opened up the main page for editing. I'd love to eventually get this page looking like LotR Wikia's or Battlestar Wiki's, but one step at a time. (Ran 02:20, 23 April 2007 (CDT))
- Nice addition, THB. :) --Ran 12:51, 26 April 2007 (CDT)
A first effort, with LotR Wikia's] as exemple. Scafloc 16:47, 7 May 2007 (CDT)
- Very cool. This is starting to look great!--The hairy bear (Send me a raven) 01:39, 8 May 2007 (CDT)
- Agreed! Excellent work, Scafloc. --Ran 09:59, 8 May 2007 (CDT)
I updated the layout and colors. It's aint no LOTR layout nor do I like the colors I choose (personally I like the brownish colors) but untill we get a new CSS colors and start changing everything I went with the formal wikipidea look to keep consistant with the rest of the interface. I hope you like it (if not we can always revert), if there is anything you dont like please post some feedback. Mor 18:15, 25 August 2011 (CDT)
Few people said they liked the new layout. While I think it was an improvement, we are still have a long way to go, also to be Honest I HATE the new color scheme, i made it on my old crappy laptop at work, where it looked great but since then I seen it on few other newer monitors and it looks saturated, crude and ugly to me, I just wish someone would point it out to me at the time. Anyway, we probably have a long way before our next redesign but i thought to start some discussion and see what you guys want and like to see, here are few things that on my reference list for further work:
- Portal Wiki I really like the simplistic design of their main page, its simple, informative and easy on the eyes. (additionally they have a spoiler thingy but I am not sure how it is relevant here).
- tolkiengateway I like their Book portal, its simple, informative and easy on the eyes.
- Lotr wikai Ran linked I like their sidebar menus, which show that we dont nessary need banners, sometimes simple layout is better.
- westeros and the forum because Ran has expressed his wish that all the sites have a unified scheme and while I personally dont particularly fond of the color scheme or think that it fits the wiki huge text walls, the must be taken into account in any design.
- Most of all content is the king, thus any idea should first consider our content and needs first.
"News" paragraph
I'd like to add a paragraph to the Main Page with the latest News. The news can be anything interesting that is linked to the series but is not an article itself, as there are enough of those. For instance the confirmation of a new actor / actress, site maintenance of Westeros or news about the next Dunk and Egg novel. Please add your thoughts. Scafloc 09:52, 24 July 2012 (UTC)
Although the main portals to content are in the top header, has anyone considered doubling them up and providing a section of the main page to also link to them (the portals for Books · Chapter Summaries · Characters · Houses · History · Geography · Organizations · TV Series)? It just seems like having the main left column top area devoted to a navigational intersection would probably be a good idea. Thoughts? For an example: RedDeadWiki's left section that has a small button link to main portals. Additionally, is anyone opposed to adding information about other media releases of the series (example: the rpgs and upcoming games)? Hooper raven contribs email 01:44, 20 September 2011 (UTC)
- I think that the Idea of devoting some additional space on the mainpage, for site navigation is a good one, as at the moment it's too small and easy to miss and we want to make it as the experience as intuitive and effective, as possible. we could easily replace the stale "What keeps us occupied?" sction and move the "about" section as footer. With that being said we have added the portals only recently and still in the process of finalizing few of them, so it's a little problematic to design the layout before we finish it, plus I would love if we could make them with some simple representative art(to add some colour to the page) not just big buttons, the problem that we donr really have anything like that yet, you may have noticed that most of the portals images are place holders I made on paint... yeah ...
- so personally I'd prefer to wait untill we have all the content before we start with this, but other than that IMO it's great idea, we can see it's being used on LotR Wikia's and Battlestar Wiki's that were suggested before as reference. our french sister project doing a good job of it, also for reference here is portal wiki doing a great job of simplistic design and tolkiengateway that apparently was my inspiration for some of the portals. Mor 19:21, 20 September 2011 (UTC)
In the last Iteration of our main page, we introduced banners to our main page as suggested by 'Hooper' above. While they are very crude and ugly(I warned you I am no artist) IMO the layout change is a step in the right direction and should improve the wiki navigation, providing better access to the various materials on the wiki. --Mor 09:56, 4 February 2012 (UTC)
Do we need the references section on the main page? because the more quotes and 'did you knows' we will add the more cluttered the main page will get with the endless list of ref's.
The way I see it there are few way to deal with it:
- Remove the section and make sure that that the info presented is referenced on the linked pages.
- split the reference list on the into two columns {{reference|2}} (which will cause problems for those with low screen res)columb
- split the reference list into two and make its text smaller <small>{{reference|2}}</small> as it is not the focus of the Main page.
- The current situation is acceptable - Do nothing.
- ?
The references on the main page are very important to show were the information on the qotes came from. Making the reference section small and 2 columns is good at equalizing the length of the columns on full sized screens. you could also reduce the white space on the left column. To improve the appearance of the images in the right column use a center html around the groups of images. see Main Page/Test 1
Ser Ash the Red 23:21, 30 December 2011 (UTC)
I seen you have updated the Reference, so this is resolved then. As for the white space problem, while the center tag does make it nicer, it is not the solution. The problem is that my calculation were a bit off, because this is how you suppose to see it, as mentioned I am working with native 1680x1050, so sometimes I miss those things, thanks for pointing out. I have a solution in mind for this and other problems I had with cursed html, if it wont work i'd just resize it. --Mor 01:03, 31 December 2011 (UTC)
Main Page
I just joined the wiki and wanted to point out that the character tab on the main page is spelled incorrectly. Otherwise, I like the changes.
It's my bad, it was late and I was trying to finish them all. I'll update it as soon, thanks for pointing it out. (I will also upload all the source files, to allow everyone to make fixes or further improvements) --Mor 22:15, 3 January 2012 (UTC)
I fixed the Characters graphic for ya, but I'm not sure I know how to upload it / or re-direct the image link to the new file. --Tyrion of House Lannister 00:19, 8 January 2012 (UTC)
I figured it out....it's not as clean as I'd like, but I figured getting something up there that was passable was better than having the typo remain on the main page....obviously, Mor, you're welcome to replace it with your corrected original file whenever you get a chance....but at least now it's not as urgent and you can get around to it whenever. :) --Tyrion of House Lannister 00:31, 8 January 2012 (UTC)
I see you solved it. for further use here the location of the Portal Images, you should choose the Image you worked on and click on the Upload a new version of this file. We have tiny problem with re-uploads, so the thumbs might not be up-to-date --Mor 00:43, 8 January 2012 (UTC)
Edit War In Progress....
Another user has been overwriting and applying incorrect edits to a navigation template. Can these templates be protected to keep this user off them and end the edit war? Dkendr 16:08, 23 May 2012 (UTC)
- I think it should be "Featured" Article/Quote rather than "Feature" Article/Quote. I mean, "featured" is the adjective that describes the article/quote, while "feature" is, well, it's a noun and kind of awkward paired with another noun... Uh, correct me if I'm wrong.
- Also, shouldn't it be "quotes" rather than "quote"? There seems to be more than one.
- Lastly, maybe change "Did you know..." to "Did you know that..." and it would connect well with the entries there, such as "Did you know that the lords of House Arryn..." rather than "Did you know the lords of House Arryn...".
Sorry, the points I mentioned above just felt kinda awkward grammatically to me, though I'm not really super expert on English or anything... – Sinslash 18:57, 25 July 2012 (UTC)
it was from fantasy flight games pictures, i saw many of them in this wiki used, so thats why i used them, if it is problem i can change them back. --Marco 15:28, 16 August 2013 (UTC)
Automatic searchbox highlight
Is its possible to make the wiki's searchbox automatically highlighted when the page is loaded?--Octavio Malibaires 15:49, 5 September 2013 (UTC)
- Perhaps. To do this we need two things: time and more time ;-)
- We have only one administrator: Ran and as he a lot to do he probably does not have enough time to look into this. So if you really want it you should check how this can be done. It is probably a wiki extension that has to be installed. And if you have found it you have to convince Ran to install it. Regards,Scafloc 15:44, 5 September 2013 (UTC)
- Thanks! I will look into it. Also, sorry for not signing my message earlier hehe --Octavio Malibaires 15:49, 5 September 2013 (UTC)
Double spaces
For consistency, we should reach a consensus on whether to use two spaces after periods. I think it's pointless but some editors do this. --Potsk (talk) 11:49, 20 May 2020 (UTC)
Wikis in Other Languages
The Dutch wiki was removed from the list (though the Main page is still linked to the Dutch one). Was this done on purpose or was it a mistake -> the list contains now 10 wikis but the header says "Eleven sisters". Scafloc (talk) 11:12, 23 March 2023 (UTC)
- Also I would like to add the interlanguage link to the Italian wiki: it:Pagina_principale


text: Here's another request for assistance in a battle that looks like it's already lost. I unfortunately don't have the time to adequately answer all of the misleading (a few are downright false) claims here. Anyone is welcome to throw in response to specific items. Please, though, let's not have several reposts of the entire presentation just to answer one line. Of particular value are quantified empirical evidence. ------------------------------------------------------- Programming Language Trade Study Introduction/Scope ? Programming language trade study for the _________ ? Addresses the ______ (MAS) and _________ only ? _________ has already determined that they will be using C ? Current candidates are ? Ada 83 ? Ada 95 ? C ? C++ ? A separate study will be performed for _________ Approach/Methodology ? Identify assumptions and relevant data to ______ ? Contrast and compare candidate language features ? Survey existing generic language comparative studies ? Review earlier MAS language selection study ? Assess how well each language supports concurrent, real-time object oriented development Examine candidate language strengths and weaknesses and the ability to provide mitigation of each in comparison to other candidates. ? Examine current industry trends particularly in reference to future supportability ? Catalog and examine local and company wide experience ? Examine staffing considerations, immediate and future ? Choose candidate which has the lowest residual risk Assumptions and Relevant Data to ____ ? The ______ Processor is currently a HP V2500 Convex running HP/UX 11.0 ? _______ software will be done in C ? ________ will be done in C++ ? There is limited potential for legacy software reuse ? _________ are JOVIAL and Assembly ? translators do not account for language optimization, modern computing architecture or DIICOE ? embedded RTOS specifics ? _____ is Ada 83, functional decomposition ? moving baseline and different mission makes mapping/reuse difficult ? _____ to be redesigned using object oriented ? methodology to minimize impact of volatile requirements ? Software costing model sensitivities show that language selection has little impact on cost ? domain experience (18% improvement) ? overall engineering competency (analysts: 29% improvement, programmers: 30% improvement) ? programming language (5% improvement). ? Legacy _______ systems include: ? ______: FORTRAN on a Cyber ? _____ , ______ & ______: JOVIAL on a Cyber running RTOS ? _____: Ada 83 on a VAX running VMS ? ______, et al: Ada 83 on a HP running Unix ? Programming language vendor base ? Ada 95 (Rational, Green Hills, GNAT, Aonix) $230 million in sales ? flat sales last year ? C/C++ $16 billion in sales, a factor of 70 greater than Ada ? increasing sales last year And Then There Were Two ? Candidate languages reduced to Ada 95 and C++ ? Ada 83 and C eliminated during preliminary analysis ? Neither are Object Oriented ? Vendor tool support for Ada 83 is being phased out in favor of Ada 95 Survey Existing Generic Language Comparative Studies ? A web search revealed few comparisons which included Ada ? The majority of the comparisons concentrated on commercial languages such as C/C++, Java, Smalltalk, Perl, etc. One Ada 95 vs. C++ comparison found was the book "Guidelines for Choosing a Computer Language", P.K. Lawlis (C.J. Kemp Systems, Inc.), 2nd Edition, August 1997 ? Recommended Ada 95 due to superior language features "Guidelines for Choosing a Computer Language" with Regard to _____ ? The criteria and ratings established by P. K. Lawlis are somewhat subjective. With a different viewpoint, values may be reassigned and criteria modified so as to result in a different language selection. ? address the language domain only and are independent of operating system capabilities e.g. Under "Concurrency Support", Ada 95 was assigned a rating of eight while C++ was assigned a zero. Concurrency in C++ is provided by the OS. - do not take into consideration good rigid software standards practices. We programmatically tailor via design and coding standards to limit a language's weaknesses and maximize its strengths. Performed in C++ successfully on Raytheon's Personal Rapid Transit (PRT) Program. ? do not address future supportability issues In P. K. Lawlis' Own Words ? From "Is the Answer Always Ada?", Patricia K. Lawlis, Proceedings: Tri-Ada 97 Conference "When software engineering considerations are factored into the process, a clearer picture of what is really important in a language choice emerges." "Ada will rate highly only if it continues to have good support from both vendors and the educational community and, indeed, only if that support continues to grow." Ada and C++ Language Feature Comparison General Assessment of Language Features ? Either Ada 95 or C++ can successfully be used to implement ______ ? Ada 95 successfully used on: ? ______, _______ ? C++ successfully used on: ? ____ (safety critical embedded program) ? _____, _______ ? more significant usage of C++ at _____, ______ and _______ locations Generally, technical discriminators between the languages are minor, and there are no areas that a strength in one does not have a work-around in the other (discussed further in Advantages/Disadvantages section). Ada 95 Advantages ? Potential of 6-15% of _______ contributing s/w implemented in Ada 83 ? There exists a pool of in-house programmers experienced in writing real-time radar software in Ada ? ______, _______, _______ ? Superior run-time constraint/range checking ? Superior exception handling ? Tends to lessen the capability to "hack" code due to the formalism of the language Ada 95 Disadvantages ? Long term future and supportability is questionable ? Ada mandate has been rescinded ? Ada Joint Program Office is no longer funded by the government ? Vendor pool is limited and shrinking ? Ada tool sets tend to lag behind C/C++ releases ? Ada tool sets tend to be more expensive ? Diminishing university base and future availability of Ada trained entry level engineers. Because of the marketability of other commercial languages (e. g. C++, Java) there is a strong motivation for experienced Ada trained engineers to gain experience with these languages rather than to continue gaining experience in Ada 95 Ada 95 Disadvantages (continued) ? Performance concerns ? compiler efficiency ? most vendors put emphasis on optimizing C++ compiler first due to greater industry competition ? run-time constraint/range checking ? when not disabled, performance overhead is added by the compiler ? RTE overhead ? additional layer between application and native OS ? Tends to hinder implementation of fast prototypes due to the formalism of the language ? Availability of compilers and development tools on next generation CPUs in question C++ Advantages ? C++ Advantages ? Much better long term supportability position ? Broader university and vendor/tools support on virtually every platform ? Long term availability of trained engineers ? C/C++ has native compilers and libraries on the HP UX system ? Opportunity for single development tool set since signal processing software is to be done in C Many expect desirable Ada 95 features to migrate into the C++ standards over the next few years, and already has in the cases of ? Overloading of operators ? Ada generics (became C++ templates) ? Exception handling C++ Disadvantages ? C++ Disadvantages ? No legacy software for ______ is written in C/C++ ? offset by higher corporate metric for productivity (approx. 20%) ? Fewer C++ hard real-time programs implemented at Raytheon ? Run-time constraint/range checking must be implemented by the programmer ? Exception handling exists, but is inferior to Ada's ? Tends to allow "hacking" due to the availability of true pointers (C) versus Ada access types (C++ references) Can Ada overcome its disadvantages? ? Ada has a much narrower and shrinking vendor base and talent pool than C++ ? Staff ______ with Ada trained personnel and offer Ada training to non-Ada trained professionals and new hires ? Work with the Ada vendors to deal with long term supportability issues ? Can Ada overcome its disadvantages? (continued) ? Ada has worse performance than C++ Debated and implementation specific, however, many performance issues are design based and can be avoided through coding standards Ada vendor resources are limited, and so Ada compilers are not getting the same amount of energy as is being applied to improving C/C++ compiler code generation performance, etc. ? Those features that are performance prohibitive need not be used (true in either language). Ada offenders include: ? Protected sections ? Exception handling recovery Can C++ overcome its disadvantages? ? C++ has a smaller pool of individuals within Raytheon with real-time radar software experience than Ada. ? Real-time C/C++ experience does exist in ______ in the ________ area ? _________, portions of ______ (other portions were Ada 95), _______, _______, ____, _____ ? Domain knowledge and engineering skills dominates ? Language has a minimal effect in software costing models ? Most programmers know 5-6 languages, and they certainly can learn another and have a strong motivation to learn C++ Can C++ overcome its disadvantages? (continued) ? C++ has inferior runtime constraint/range checking ? User-supplied checks may prove more efficient (being put only where they make sense), but require greater thought ? May be placed as conditional compiles ? May be in runtime portion or in classes ? C++ has inferior exception handling (s/w and h/w) Legacy systems do not use Ada's exception handling for fault tolerance due to performance impacts and domain requirements; hence, this superior potential has never been utilized. Therefore C/C++ throw/catch ability is sufficient


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There are certain composers whose music we can recognize and identify immediately. It is unnecessary to listen to more than a few moments of any mature work by Olivier Messiaen, Elliott Carter, or Philip Glass (to name three dissimilar artists) to realize who was responsible for its creation. But there are others whose music may change radically from piece to piece—or, for that matter, from measure to measure. The German composer Karlheinz Stockhausen (1928–2007) falls into this camp.
Stockhausen burst on the scene directly after World War II, a stateless, brilliant representative of the "new" Germany whose mother had been euthanized for what the Nazis considered mental illness and whose father, a soldier, had disappeared during the war. By the mid-1950s, through his ambition and ceaseless creativity, he was ranked with Pierre Boulez and John Cage as a controversial avatar of all that was new, strange, and challenging in classical music. He composed in an astonishingly wide range of styles: electronic music, serial music, aleatory (or chance) music, in which some parts of the composition are determined by performers. His works were scored for everything from the tape recorder to solo piano, music boxes, multiple orchestras, and full opera companies.
But for the past thirty years, most of Stockhausen's music has been all but impossible to hear, and a generation or more has come of age without the slightest understanding of what he once meant to young composers and musicians, who cheered him on as passionately as an older generation rejected him. From the 1950s through the early 1980s, almost all of Stockhausen's compositions were issued on LP by the Deutsche Grammophon label, which disseminated his work throughout the world. When the leading recording format changed to CD, around 1982, Stockhausen took back all of his rights and the majority of his significant works became available through him, at outrageously expensive prices (while the composer was still living, some of the discs cost more than $100; the prices have recently been lowered).
Few young people, therefore, had the means to learn about Stockhausen for themselves anymore, unless they found one of his used Deutsche Grammophon LPs by chance, or heard a performance of one of his very few works that were easily accessible in printed score (a number of his recordings have found their way to Youtube, though they quickly disappear). Certainly these newcomers would have been surprised to know that Stockhausen was once so influential—and, for that matter, very famous. There may be no more telling sign of the popular stature he once held than a quick glimpse at the familiar faces the Beatles chose for the cover of their ambitiously all-embracing Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, where, in the top row, you will find Stockhausen nestled between Lenny Bruce and W.C. Fields and only a few people removed from Mae West, Carl Jung, and Bob Dylan.
Stockhausen's work abounds in contradictions. He composed music of Webernian concentration (the Klavierstuck No. 3, a flash of brittle, pianistic lightning that lasts less than thirty seconds) and a massive series of experimental operas that make Wagner's Ring cycle seem laconic. (The Licht series, created between 1977 and 2003, includes seven operas, one for every day of the week, that add up to a total of twenty-nine hours of music). He wrote fiercely organized, precisely notated serial compositions alongside conceptual works that leave virtually every traditional musical choice (pitch, rhythm, timbre, and duration) up to the performer. He was a pioneer in the development of profoundly complicated music for several orchestras and choruses, yet one of his great masterpieces (Stimmung) is a lyrical, hypnotic, and near-motionless seventy-five-minute work for six a cappella solo voices, sometimes sung cross-legged on the floor in a darkened room.
Stockhausen won his first fame in 1955 with what is widely considered the first great electronic composition, Gesang der Jünglinge (Song of the Youths), which combined the recorded voices of children with purely synthesized sounds to create a sort of contemporary Mass (whenever the text can be deciphered, the words praise God). This thirteen-minute tape piece was originally intended for an audience surrounded by loudspeakers in every corner of the hall. Gesang der Junglinge was later released on LP, where it necessarily lost its three-dimensional spatial qualities, but proved a work of singular poetry and ethereal beauty that has diminished not at all.
After this electronic beginning, Stockhausen continued to explore spatial music with live instruments. Gruppen (1957) was written for three orchestras, arranged to surround the audience on three sides. Carre (1960) was scored for four orchestras and four choruses, fashioned in what Stockhausen called "moment" form.
"In the concept of the 'moment,' Stockhausen sought a resolution of listeners' difficulties in experiencing form in serial music," G.W. Hopkins observed in The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians. "Each individually characterized passage in a work is regarded as an experiential unit, a 'moment,' which can potentially engage the listener's full attention and can do so in exactly the same measure as its neighbors. No single 'moment' claims priority, even as a beginning or ending; hence the nature of such a work is essentially 'unending' (and indeed 'unbeginning')." Stockhausen himself put it somewhat more plainly. "You can confidently stop listening for a moment," he said, "if you cannot or do not want to go on listening, for each moment stands on its own."
The Klavierstucke IX, first performed in 1963, begins with a brutally dissonant chord repeated 156 times—not, as it may seem, a precursor of minimalism but rather a protracted, calibrated fade-out—before moving into a Olivier Messiaen-like aviary of trills and twitters. Klavierstucke X is as brilliantly virtuosic as any nineteenth-century operatic paraphrase by Franz Liszt, filled with scurrying grace notes, hammered tone clusters, and a sense of heart-in-mouth drama. I remember the way a good portion of an Avery Fisher Hall audience (virtually all those who hadn't left when the nineteenth-century part of the program was over) rushed the stage when Maurizio Pollini played Klavierstucke X at the end of one of his programs in 1983. It was one of the most exciting things I ever saw in recital and I wonder why more pianists don't take these works up as encore pieces.
Because Stockhausen's piano music was published (by Universal Edition), it has been recorded and performed with some regularity. The score for Stimmung is also available. The same cannot be said for the massive electronic epic Hymnen (1968) which combined more than forty national anthems into a two-hour exploration of vast panoplies of sound. A third major work from 1968, Aus den sieben Tagen (From the Seven Days), was entirely conceptual. The "score" for one movement began with the following instruction:
play a sound
play it for so long
until you feel
that you should stop
One hopes that recordings of this music, made available at prices that average listeners can afford, might inspire a reevaluation of Stockhausen's important work. Only then will we be able to take the full measure, once again, of this Promethean shaman, theorist and composer.


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